


Upon These Stones

by Duckay



Category: World Wrestling Entertainment
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Humor, Les Misérables References
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-26
Updated: 2017-06-26
Packaged: 2018-11-19 05:42:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,650
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11306889
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Duckay/pseuds/Duckay
Summary: Tyler is staging a protest. No one is quite sure why, or what he plans to achieve, or how he plans to achieve it, but it at least looks like fun.





	Upon These Stones

**Author's Note:**

  * For [withswords](https://archiveofourown.org/users/withswords/gifts).



> This is a birthday present for withswords, based on a running joke about Tyler Breeze as a foolish and inefficient version of Enjolras from Les Misérables. It's pure goofy comedy.

The last steel chair carefully put in its place, Tyler stepped back to admire his handiwork. It had taken him the better part of an evening, time that he usually spent in a makeup chair, but he had to admit that it seemed to be worth the effort. The pile of furniture spanned the full length of the hallway: tables, steel chairs, and a few ladders balanced precariously on top of one another to form what Tyler estimated to be an impassable structure, or at least a moderate inconvenience.

This finally complete to his satisfaction, he climbed carefully to the top. His selfie stick raised triumphantly. It was time to wait.

* * *

The first person to stumble upon his construction was Fandango. His brow creased in curiosity as he assessed the situation.

“I’ve been looking everywhere for you, Breezey,” he finally said, eyes scanning the pile in the middle of the hallway. “What are you doing? Is this a new case?”

“It’s a barricade,” Tyler explained, gingerly stepping down from his position atop the structure. “I’m staging a formal protest.”

Fandango carefully considered this for a long moment.

“Cool.”

This required a little rearrangement of the barricade; a bin slid to one side, a ladder propped at a different angle, but a chair was freed so that Fandango too had a place to sit and defend the barricade too. On reflection, that was something of an oversight. How was Tyler supposed to defend his barricade without his partner?

* * *

“I understand that it’s a barricade,” Sami Zayn had said, patiently, as he considered the construction. “What I don’t understand is why.”

“It’s a protest.” Fandango’s voice, deep and gravelly, also carried with it a certain finality. Sami still looked as though he had questions, like something was unresolved, but he didn’t push the issue. He stared at the barricade a while longer, adjusting his hat thoughtfully.

Eventually, Tyler felt moved to speak.

“Is there something that we can do for you?”

Sami scratched the back of his head. “Can I join you?”

The answer was not immediately forthcoming. Tyler had to climb down from his seat on top to properly liaise with Fandango, which necessitated a lot of careful balancing and weight distribution, lest his construction collapse under him. The two had a brief whispered conversation, gesturing furiously the whole while, before Tyler nodded sharply and clambered back up to his previous position, squaring his shoulders.

“No.”

* * *

AJ Styles had rather taken in stride the idea of a protest, but the way he was pacing in front of it was starting to make Tyler feel ill at ease. There was something intense in AJ’s eyes that bordered on frightening, and if he hung around much longer, people might start to think that he was a part of the protest. Sami had eventually been allowed to join them as it was impossible to say no to his dejected puppy face, but Tyler would rather die than see his barricade affiliated with AJ’s complete lack of style.

“You know people can just go around you, don’t you?” AJ said eventually, folding his arms across his bare chest. “This isn’t much of a barricade if it doesn’t actually cause an obstruction.”

“We don’t want to get in the way.”

“Isn’t the point of a barricade to get in the way?”

Tyler bristled. “I think I know the point of a barricade.”

Their eyes met for a long moment. Eventually, AJ walked away, though he was shaking his head and mumbling something to himself, under his breath. Tyler thrust his selfie stick into the air again triumphantly. Score one for the good guys! Behind him, Sami cried out a victory shout. Generic though he was, perhaps Sami wasn’t all that bad.

* * *

Of all the reactions that Tyler had expected to his barricade, laughter had… well, admittedly, it had been on the list, but somewhere near the bottom, and it still sort of stung. Especially coming from three people at once. That was hardly fair. He was outnumbered!

Movement beside him caught his eye, and, remembering Sami’s presence, he mentally re-evaluated the previous sentence. Technically, they were evenly matched, but between Big E’s size and his sheer force of personally, he felt outnumbered by Big E no matter how many reinforcements he had.

“Charles,” Big E had finally managed, when he’d recovered enough to speak. “You never struck me as political.”

“ _Don’t call me that_ ,” Tyler began, his voice unpleasantly shrill, before schooling his features into something colder, and sniffing disdainfully. At least, he hoped it was disdainful. There was a possibility that it came across as simply bratty, or like he needed a tissue. “This isn’t a matter of politics. This is a matter of _principle_.”

Kofi had finally ceased his laughter, though the fact that he now looked thoughtful was possibly even more worrying. “Who are you protesting _against_?”

Tyler turned to meet Fandango’s eye, but his partner didn’t seem to have any grand answer at hand. Actually, it was possible that he was asleep. His chair did look pretty comfortable.

“The establishment,” Tyler replied haughtily, but Kofi waved him off.

“You’re the police,” he pointed out. Unable to stop himself, Tyler looked down at his own chest, the embroidered badge standing out starkly against the pale blue. Before he could muster a response, Kofi continued, “You’re like, undercover behind your own barricade. You _are_ the establishment. You're basically Javert.”

Something inside Tyler flared at these words. Kofi didn’t know what he was talking about; that much was clear. The fashion police were obviously an important part of the SmackDown Live infrastructure, that much was true, but that didn’t mean that every misdeed around here was under their jurisdiction. Besides, he was plainly in his uniform. He knew from experience that he was a veritable master of disguise; if he’d wanted to infiltrate someplace undercover, no one would have noticed him. Had he not proven this, time and time again, in their pursuit of the Uggos?

Not to mention, ‘Javert’ wasn’t even close to the name of any of his undercover identities. Obviously Kofi had gotten confused. Perhaps there was a Javert somewhere, and Kofi had thought it was Tyler in some sort of disguise. That made sense. He made a mental note to ask about that later. Dillinger might know.

In a stage whisper, Kofi began to ask, “Why is he just stari -”, but Xavier silenced him with a sharp shushing sound and a wave of his hand.

“Give him time.”

Sami spoke up before Tyler could finish his thought. “Do you want to join us?”

Big E and Xavier exchanged a look. Kofi still looked concerned, but when his teammates spoke up with a half-hearted agreement, he began to clamber up alongside them.

* * *

The inclusion of the New Day behind the barricade not only doubled their numbers, but seemed to quadruple their influence. Kofi had taken a position right on top of the barricade, waving a flag (though Tyler had no idea where he’d gotten it from -- was it left over from Battleground merch?) and calling out to anyone who walked past with intermittent shouts of, “Vive la Révolution!”, while Big E and Xavier appeared to be trying to sell ice cream. Their only customer so far had been a delighted Sami, but that didn’t stop them taking turns trying to frankly bully Tyler into turning a gap in the barricade into a storefront.

Of course, ever since the barricade had been assembled it was only a matter of time before the higher-ups took notice, but Tyler couldn’t help but feel that it had been accelerated somewhat by the increase in volume.

Shane McMahon had both hands raised in a gesture of submission as he approached. Tyler peered through two tables to meet the commissioner’s eye. Thankfully, Kofi had stopped yelling.

“What brings you here?” Tyler yelled out, fingers tightening around the shaft of his selfie stick as though it were a weapon. In a manner of speaking, it was, except instead of making his enemies drop dead, it made him look drop dead gorgeous.

_Nice_ , Fandango’s thoughts supplied in answer. Tyler smiled.

“Come on, boys,” Shane began, as he drew near. “We have a show to run and things to do here. You’ve had your fun, but…”

“But what?” Tyler demanded, though a certain amount of nervousness was setting in. Kofi had started to climb down off the top of the barricade, and Xavier was packing up the ice cream cart. It would look quite foolish if his followers left him now just because Shane had asked them to.

“They’ve told me that you’re protesting here, Breeze, and I’m willing to talk terms if you pack up and move off to the side.”

Tyler set his jaw firmly. “Terms first, then we’ll move.”

Shane sighed heavily, though he was courteous enough to at least keep the roll of his eyes as discreet as possible.

“What the hell are you protesting?”

“If you have to ask,” Tyler replied icily, “you’re part of the problem.”

This was clearly not the answer that Shane had hoped for, though his expression told Tyler that he’d at least half expected it. He looked imploringly to the other five faces behind the barricade and repeated his question.

“You heard Breezey.”

“It just looked like fun.”

“Did you want an ice cream?”

Shane scrubbed at one of his eyes with the palm of his hand and sighed again. It was something a lot of people did when they were talking to Tyler, though he wasn’t usually sure why. Didn’t they know that kind of thing could damage the blood vessels around your eyes? He was just opening his mouth to say that, when he was cut off by Shane speaking again. 

“When you’re ready to talk terms, I’ll be in my office. We can do without this hallway anyway.”


End file.
